It has emerged that ECB chief executive David Collier jumped before he was pushed out of English cricket’s top administrative job.

The ECB announced at the weekend that Collier, who has led the organisation for a decade, will retire at the end of the season.

But his decision to quit, which was accepted at a meeting last week — the start of which was not open to executive staff — followed serious pressure from the counties for a change of outlook and personnel at the top.

Standing down: David Collier has decided to quit his role as the ECB's chief executive

The counties, with ECB board members Colin Graves (Yorkshire) and Richard Thompson (Surrey) understood to be the most powerful voices, have not been happy for some time about the distribution of money from the ECB and the huge costs involved in staging international cricket.

There were also concerns about the size of the £40million pot of cash the ECB are holding in case of disruption to Test series, while the recent appointment of Gordon Hollins as chief operating officer was seen as a move pushed by the counties for better liaison with the ECB.

So Collier, who has been spending an increasing amount of his time on ICC business, opted for retirement and some likely lucrative consultancy roles rather than a fight with his board to remain at the helm.

Surrey’s Richard Gould, son of former Wimbledon manager Bobby Gould, is strong favourite to replace him but he also has ambitions to become a football club chief executive.

Many people will now hope that the ECB’s autocratic chairman Giles Clarke will follow Collier through the exit door. But Clarke has every intention of standing for election next year.

Name in the frame: Surrey's Richard Gould is favourite to takeover at the helm

American captain Tom Watson invited the top 20 players in the US Ryder Cup rankings on a reconnaissance mission last week to Gleneagles ahead of the match in September.

But it doesn’t say much for US team bonding or the pulling power of all-time great Watson that only two — Jim Furyk and Keegan Bradley — bothered to turn up.

Hot water: Ray Whelan has handed himself in to police

Ray Whelan, the British businessman implicated in an investigation into the illegal resale of World Cup tickets, had been acting as a sports advisor to the Government.

Whelan sat on a committee for a number of years that advised the UK Trade and Investment department on sporting events.

He stood down when his work for Match Services preparing for the World Cup in Brazil started to take an increasing amount of his time.

Team Sky cycling chief Sir David Brailsford has pin-pointed the main reason for England’s chronic problems at international football.

The relationship between the Premier League and the FA is dysfunctional, he told the BBC’s Sportsweek, whereas the German Federation and the Bundesliga work as one.

A significant proportion of blame has to go to Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore for the way he confronts the FA at every opportunity, although his many acolytes will no doubt say differently.

Rio golf in the bunker

Anyone who has been in Brazil and witnessed the last-minute nature of their World Cup preparations would be astonished at the confidence shown by the International Golf Federation at a Hoylake briefing on Monday about the embryonic course in the Barra area of Rio being ready for the 2016 Olympics.

Optimistic: Ty Votaw (centre) is hopeful the course in Rio will be ready in time

The construction project, with difficulties between landowner and developer to resolve, has already missed seven deadlines and still resembles a building site.

Yet IGF vice-president Ty Votaw said somewhat optimistically that the course could be one of the iconic venues of the Games.

More realistic is the contingency plan to move the event to the Itanhanga Golf Club, one of Rio’s two 18-hole courses.